What Does the Seven Churches Say to Genuine Believers (Part 2)

To the messenger (representative) of the church of Ephesus write...nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love." (Revelation 2:1,4, NKJV)

Ephesus left her first love. The order of the words in the Greek are important. John placed the object before the verb. It actually reads, "thy first love thou has left." In our vernacular, it would read, "your first love you have left."

John makes this emphasis in order to show the church as a whole that it no longer has the same fervency or depth of love for Christ that they once had. In other words, their love for Christ had cooled. This "cooling" of their love for Christ would become the precursor to apathy.

Christ charges the Ephesians with "letting go" or "leaving alone" their love for Christ. They ignored their love and as a result it cooled. They had disregarded their love for Christ. We have to ask ourselves:

What Causes a Believer to "abandon their first love?"

·         A love for money or material possessions (1 Tim 6:10)

·         A love for the world's ideologies, philosophies, accolades, acceptance, approval, and acquisitions  (1 John 2:15)

·         A love for idols (1 Jn 5:21)

·         A love that is greater for family or family members than Christ Jesus (Matt 10:37; 1 Cor 7:34)

So we conclude with this warning - A love for anything that either hinders a true love for Christ Jesus or is greater than our love for Christ is a dangerous affection and needs to be either rejected or immediately put back in proper priority.

What Corrects a Believer to "adore their first love?"

Jesus gave four (4) actions to take in order to fall back in love with Him:

• Rehearse - remember what you once were.

• Go back to the place of departure
• Remember the love that first had and the reasons for that love

• Repent - change your mind, develop a different attitude to Christ

• Turn from your sin of coolness towards Christ
• Turn to Christ in order to fervent love Him again

• Repeat - do the first works that you did when you loved Christ fervently

• True love for Christ is always revealed by the works it produces
• Being busy and merely active does not necessarily reflect love

• Realize - there is a reward

• There would no need of chastisement
• True believers (overcomers) will be rewarded with eternal life

What Does the Seven Churches Say to Genuine Believers (Part 1)

My devotions for the last quarter of the year will take me through The Revelation of Jesus Christ. As I meditated on chapters 2 and 3 it dawned on me that I should review each of these churches that Jesus Christ had John write to and see what they said to me and to the North Kelso Baptist Church.

You will notice the first thing I did was to make a list of the condemnations that Christ spoke against the various churches. I wanted to make sure I knew what Christ had against them specifically. My purpose was to take inventory of my life and of the NKBC in order to determine if I or she were guilty of any of these charges. So today, I will list the charges or the condemnations. 

Then in each succeeding day, Lord willing, I will address those charges or condemnations from a practical standpoint. So here are the things that Christ had against these churches. By the way they are in order, including the exclusion of the two churches Christ did not have any negative comments or condemnations.

The Condemnations

1. Ephesus left her first love - she experienced a cooling of the heart toward God

2. Pergamos harbored those who held the doctrines of Balaam

1. Caused some to eat meat dedicated/offered to idols
2. Caused some to commit sexual immorality

3. Pergamos harbored those who held the doctrines of the Nicolaitians
4. Thyatira allowed an evil woman to teach

1. She caused some to eat meat dedicated/offered to idols
2. She caused some to commit sexual immorality

5. Sardis was  actually spiritually dead when she thought herself to be alive
6. Laodicea was lukewarm, neither rejecting God nor loving God

You'll notice that both the church at Smyrna and at Philadelphia did not have any condemnation. We will examine those churches in the future since they are the type of church that each church should strive to be like.

Lord willing, tomorrow we will examine "What Causes A Believer to Abandon their first love?"

The Certainties of the Christian Life Part 2

Sermon:  GM14-039

Series:  Christian Living in a World of Chaos and Contradiction

Setting:  North Kelso Baptist Church

Service:  Sunday AM

Subtitle:  The Certainties of the Christian Life (Part 2)

Scripture:  1 John 5:14-15

Subject:  It is good to be certain

Summary:  Genuine believers must understand the absolute certainties of the Christian life to live faithfully in a world of chaos and contradiction

Scheme:  That believers develop the confidence provided by God

Don't Forget to Fall Back Tonite!

Happy Reformation Day!

The Blessing of Persecution

Child of God, never fear nor forget the purpose, the power, and the product of persecution in the life of a believer or a church. Regardless of Satan's intentions, God uses persecution to further conform us to the image of His dear Son. Persecution is designed for our good and God's glory.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown

Really? Already?

Are we going to make this an issue again? Do we really want to put our ignorance on display for everyone to see? Is this the greatest problem that this nation is facing?

First of all, this nation is not the largest Christian nation in the world. It is not and has never been a Christian nation. There is no such animal. This may be a nation with the largest Christian population. It may be a nation that in its foundation relied upon Biblical principles. It is certainly a nation that has professed to be "Christian" in both doctrine and character. But it is not and never will be a Christian nation. 

Second, with the decadence and decay of this nation running downhill at break-neck speed I wonder if this is really a great problem? Our nation is in desperate trouble. She has turned her back on God and has rejected His truth. Now, that does not come as a surprise to me since every man, woman, and child born in this nation is born dead in trespasses and sin, born into absolute darkness, born hating the light, and born with a sin nature. 

My friend, having sin-soaked, God-rejecting heathens tell me I can't or shouldn't say "Merry Christmas" is not our greatest problem. Our greatest problem is not abortion. Our greatest problem is not homosexuality.This nations greatest problem is PRIDE. Pride continues to lead men and women to reject God and His Word. Pride causes men to say, "We won't have God rule over us." Pride causes men to become their own gods. Every man wants to do what he wants to do.

Rather than lament the lack of "Christmas Spirit" and the loss of holiday greetings, let's fall on our face and begin to weep as we ask God to have mercy upon us. Let's seek God and in fasting and fear hoping for a moving of God through His people before this nation plunges any further into the abyss in which she is headed.